Painted Gold
by DragonsRuleYourDreams12
Summary: Oneshot. This is about how Edward and Alphonse have been though a lot-- And how it's not exactly as fair to both of them as everybody thinks. Dislciamer- I don't own FMA. T.T R&R, Please!


Ed didn't know why, when he walked, he held his hands in fists. Or why his eyes burned with such pain and anger. They were like two pages, telling his life story, but _painted_ gold. Just like everything else the Elric Brothers had come across. It was all fake. It was all _painted _gold.

Why did he insist on becoming a dog of the millitary? Why did he insist on going agenst his teacher's wishes? Like when she told him not to commit the sin of Human Transmutation. Or when he even became a State Alchemist. Why did he do that?

There was one time, Ed could remember, when Winry had gone missing. He traced her into a butcher shop, where he met probably the most sick man in all of the world.

The man was Barry the Chopper. He held his cleaver up in front of Ed, also holding his detached right auto-mail arm, and told him that he felt the best feeling in the world when he chopped up his wife.

And when Ed had brought him down, he was scared. More scared than he had been in his life. It was none other than Al that had come to see if he was okay. And what did Ed do? Smack him with the knife that Barry the Chopper killed his wife with. It didn't matter that the suit of armor was uneffected, it was the fact that he put his hand over the scratch, as if he felt it. It was the fact that he had gone to look for Ed. And Al, secretly, felt that when Ed did that, he wasn't his little brother. That he was a large, spiked monster that looked as if it had crawled out of underneeth somebody's bed. A huge, _empty _monster.

Then there was the time that Ed ignored Al during their training on the island. He pleaded for Ed to spare the rabbit they had caught. Ed didn't care about anything else but his hunger. And so he killed the innocent animal, and ate it, while Al had nothing. He wondered around the island, finding only things for _his_ side of the bed they had made.

Then came the transmutation. Little Alphonse wanted nothing to do with it. But Ed made him. And Al was left with no choice other than to live, see, hear, and walk around in Ed's mistake. Every. Single. Day.

When Al wanted a pet, a _companion_- Ed's only arguement was that they travel too much. And who, exactly, _made _the two travel? Mustang didn't, because it was Ed's choice to join the millitary, with full understanding that he would need to travel.

The two never told Winry anything about their lives. Ed constantly made her come out to fix the auto-mail he had broken so many times. And Al always walked around, bearing the scars and scratches that were left on his body. It was that factor that made him look even more like a soilder, not a 14-year-old boy. It was Al that got stared at.

And it was Ed that spent most of their money. On his auto-mail, on food, on travel expenses... And when his arm was toast, and Al's armor was crap-- It was Ed that got to ride on the train like a normal person. It was Al that rode like luggage. And Ed wonders why Al doesn't feel human.

It was Winry's own grandmother, the person that served so much like a grandmother to the boys, that doubted them. She secretly thought that Ed held the term of 'human' too loosely. But, she guessed, if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to look at Al without wincing. Neither would anybody else, for that matter.

Ed had been kicked out of the largest library in Resembool because of Al's armor. Because it clanked and made too much noise. It was Ed that got mad at Al for the mistake _he_ made.

Edward didn't understand why Al had made friends with Fletcher. He hated him and his brother's guts, no matter how hard Al would try to explain.

Ed was the one that could cry when they visited their mother's grave. He couldn't stare down at it and feel hollow. But it was always the same red, bottomless eyes that made Ed smile, and cringe. It was always Al's sad expression that made him work one step harder to their goal.

Ed didn't know why he wanted to see Al smile so bad. Until the day he really realised how it felt to be hollow, how it felt to be _dead_ inside-- He knew that when he smiled, he didn't feel pain. And that's all he wanted for Al. To make it so he wouldn't feel anymore pain. He did, in one way-- Just not the way he'd wished for.

Ed was the one that got to sit in a nice and soft bed every night. Ed was the one who could replennish himself every night.

But all Al could do was stare at the moon. And think about how it was _painted gold._


End file.
